Spending time with family

The Monday before the Forth of July we had a chance to hang out with my older sister and her family. There is a splash pad near my parents that's open to the public and so we suited up and went there with the kids. It was fun to chat with Muscles and her husband who I want to call Darpa, because he works on that kind of stuff. (If that doesn't work let me know.)

On a side note about the names I use for my family members, Muscles didn't think that her name was appropriate. In a rare turn of events I had to remind her that she had told me that "Muscles" was her middle name. She had even asked Darpa "What's my middle name?" and he had replied that it was indeed "Muscles." So, unless she wants me to call her by our grandfather's nic-name for her, I intend to stick with Muscles. My other siblings have it a little easier as they have always had nic-names. "M", "Bub", and "Babe" round out my family with Bub being my only brother. Babe (the youngest, and my junior by 14 years) came with us as did my mother.

We had a lot of fun. Even Tigger, who hasn't decided whether he likes water or not. He alternated between screaming his head of in terror and screaming from excitement. I was glad that I was wearing a t-shirt because when he gets scared he tries to climb up as high as he can, which means he goes for the top of my head. It reminds me of the stereotypical housewife trying to get away from the proverbial mouse. Without a shirt he wouldn't have had any traction and I'm sure I would have dropped him. Kanga loved running around with her cousins. (Hey, Muscles! I need names for your kids!) There was one unfortunate moment when she went to run into a falling stream of water and didn't see the other kid trying to do the same from the other side. Bonked head aside, she enjoyed herself.

On the Forth, we went to my in-laws and enjoyed their pool and, I hope, got Tigger over his hydrophobia. We were joined by Tree and Peanut (my wife's youngest two brothers), as well as both grandparents. It's an above ground pool which means the water is always four feet deep - no shallows for young, hydrophobic, children. He's getting heavier and so we inflated a small child raft and put him in it. Kanga, who has always enjoyed the water, got her floater on and started partying. Tigger just didn't want to let go of whichever relative was holding on to him. We finally got him in the raft and to stop screaming. After a while he even started to enjoy himself. Eventually we took him out and my wife began the process of conditioning him holding his breath. The age old method of doing this is to just toss the kid in the water. We were kinder than that while still keeping with the spirit of the thing. By the end, he was even remembering to close his mouth and had a smile on it. On the way home we stopped for hot dogs and roasted them over our fire pit for dinner.